I think what most people are failing to realize -- the NHL has had a growing crisis, through basically no fault of it's own. You watch the video below from 5:30, and you see tons of hits into the turnbuckle, many much worse than this where it was a player being directed into the turnbuckle rather than Chara's where he was directed into the boards.
The biggest difference between today and these hits -- the players are much bigger, stronger, and faster. Conditioning today is much more advanced than it was 10 years ago. These athletes are all performing at the peak of their physical capabilities much moreso than before. You've go extremely lightweight equipment that allows you to move even quicker. It's a similar development path to stick technology, sure goalies look like the michelin man today whereas 40 years ago they were just slightly bigger skaters, but 40 years ago, people couldn't shoot anywhere near 100 mph.
You see a lot less shoulder or knee injuries today because of this conditioning, but you see more head injuries because the head can't be conditioned to take abuse. The big problem that people have of course -- is that knees and shoulders heal much better than brains. Hockey has always been a somewhat reckless game, as is football or any other contact sport, the object hasn't been to remove the player from the puck and ensure he gently glides into the boards, the object has been to remove the player from the puck and get back into the play.